The Bomere Heath & District News Page
The Parish News,
The Parish News is a locally produced magazine by members of the Ecumenical Churches and members of the community to share news about life in the community with local averts of wares and services, to reach many members of the community.
The Parish News is free and funded by donations and advertisements, and 870 copies are printed on 10 months of the year with Dec/Jan and Jul/Aug being double editions. They are distributed to members of the community be kind volunteers.
In recent years the magazine as made small losses, These have been born by the group, but there is a desire to revamp the magazine, moving to a a newer format that still delivers the local news regularly, but with a focus on making the magazine sustainable for the future.
We have been able to track some of the history of the magazine and how it all came to be.
The History of the Parish News (with thanks to Pat Hall)….
Parish News was the idea of Revd Michael Hill supported by Methodist and Presbyterian churches in the early 70s. It was started by the church for the people of Bomere Heath and villages in the Church Parish (so this includes Preston Gubbals and Albrighton).
Sheila Ellis was asked to type it up and had a Gestetner typewriter machine which she kept under the stairs to print off each page. She typed articles onto a stencil and then use the stencil to print off on the machine- about 200 copies. Kath Ridgway took over from Sheila and the printed stencils were taken to Fred Gittins for printing on his machine. The print outs were then collected by Mr Howarth from the Methodists and a party of people stapled it together in the Methodist School Room.
As the years went by the publication developed and got bigger with more local businesses advertising in it for a small fee. Fred Gittins took on the editorship and printing and later editorship passed to Sue Harris and printing went to a printer in Hadnall.
An annual coffee morning was held to raise funds so that the magazine could be delivered free to every home in the Parish. The colour page covers of the magazine were different each month. The current design was created by Helen Woodman, showing the 3 churches in the village including the now-closed Presbyterian church- an important part of village history. It currently stays the same month by month to cut down costs but a different cover is used on Special occasions if affordable.
The magazine has a lot of history and a lot of faithful people have been involved in its production through its history.
The New Look Magazine is here.
There has been an update to the committee and the Parish Magazine was agreed to be revamped from Jan 2024. The new look mag will now consist of eight editions per year. These are;
- February
- April
- June
- July
- September
- October
- November
- December
The magazine has remained A5 size and now with a mixture of colour and black-and-white pages. It was agreed that the cover will be a coloured paper.The cover will change with each edition, and we hope to involve the community in some way in this.
It was agreed that we would adjust the name to Bomere Heath and District News.
There has been a cost review of the printing, whilst marginally more expensive. the committee will use the same printing firm based in Leaton to do the printing for us.
There will be continuing work on broadening, streamlining and improving the quality of the content, as well as seeking a few new advertisers.
This page will act as the community download point for PDF copies and more run of the mill contact information etc.
There is an email address for contacting the Bomere Heath and District News team, It is [email protected]. This email address is going to be shared by three people- Shalome MacNeill-Cooper, Arthur Payne and Hannah Lins. Therefore be aware that any one of the team may respond to emails.
